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IDC Sees Growth Returning to Global Smartphone Shipments After 2018 Decline

Global smartphone unit shipments are expected to decline 3 percent this year to 1.42 billion before returning to low-single-digit growth in 2019 and through 2022, said IDC Tuesday. It’s forecasting 2.6 percent year-over-year shipment growth in 2019: “Shipments are forecast…

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to reach 1.57 billion units in 2022.” In China, the largest smartphone market, shipments are expected to decline 8.8 percent this year. Chinese growth will be flat in 2019 before returning to “positive territory” through 2022, the researcher said. The U.S. also is forecast to return to positive growth in 2019 with a 2.1 percent year-over-year increase, after experiencing a decline in 2018. "With many of the large global companies focusing on high-end product launches, hoping to draw in consumers looking to upgrade based on specifications and premium devices, we can expect head-to-head competition within this segment during the holiday quarter and into 2019 to be exceptionally high," said IDC.